How Professional Photography Has Evolved

It’s incredible to think that in only 100 years we have been able to go from an evening at the theatre to an evening of Netflix and chill…. whatever that means.

Nowhere has this change been so acutely felt than with photography. Only 50 years ago you would have to possess a thorough knowledge of lighting and camera techniques just to take the picture. Not only that, but you would’ve had to spend hours in the darkroom. Professional photography, was almost a dark art, all very mysterious, and you certainly wouldn’t go there if you didn’t know what you were doing.

It’s all change now; it certainly takes less skill to produce a half decent image than it did back in the day. People upload staggering 1.8 billion images to social media every 24 hours; we have smartphones with powerful cameras with intuitive apps and a whole host of ways of sharing your images with anyone anywhere instantly. Photography it seems has never been so accessible to so many people.

So why would you want to use a Professional Studio?

In this world of instant media, there is still a difference between taking a photo and creating an image, that’s where the photographic studio comes into its own.

In a way, it’s harder now to convince people of the importance of using professionals for your photography due to the accessibility of the technology. Everyone thinks they are a photographer, but in reality to produce professionally polished images is still as much of a skill as it used to be. Great photography is all about being able to control light and having that creative eye, and that hasn’t changed in all the years since the very birth of this art form.

It is easy to forget that when you come to a commercial studio such as Blend, you’re not just paying for the images. When you start to break it down, you’ll soon see you get far more for you money than just a single image.

The true cost lies in the production value along with the experience and knowledge of the photographer who knows how to light and capture your product in the way that best showcases it. Different surfaces require different quality of light. Does it need a hard light source or a soft one? Do you need deep, lengthy shadows, providing texture? Where do you need that highlight on your product? Now I don’t expect you to understand all that – that’s what you pay the experts for.

What has evolved professionally (for the better), is the ability to retouch images extensively. In this digital age, there’s a level of retouching images that you just couldn’t have performed in years gone by – even with the necessary skills. All professional images you see have had some retouching done on them, and that’s something you should expect of your professional photographers. At Blend Studios, as a matter, of course, everything goes through our retouch department. We just wouldn’t send anything out without one of our retouchers getting their hands on it.

So next time you need product photography, fashion photography or still life, why don’t you contact the professionals at Blend Studios. Call us on 020 7267 5055. I promise you’ll certainly see the positive difference that this will bring to your business.